--- title: "Introduction to Imamah, Part 1" event: "The Lantern of the Path" session_number: 21 published_at: "2025-04-16" canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/introduction-to-imamah-part-1" event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path" type: "event-session" scripture_reference: "Ghurur al-Hikam, The Party of Allah, Aphorism 1" --- # Introduction to Imamah, Part 1 *Session 21 of [The Lantern of the Path](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path) — 16 April 2025* Imamah, Part 1 In his own will, an Imam paid for ten years of professional mourners — and it had nothing to do with vanity. This opening session sets the terms for the entire Imamah series: the roughly 250 years between the Prophet's death and the lesser occultation are studied as a single continuous life, not eleven separate biographies. The Imams themselves are quoted saying so directly: "We are all one light… our will is one." A narration attributed to any one of them may correctly be attributed to any other, since their knowledge and mission are one. To make the case that dates and family trees are not what matters, the session turns to Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him, the fifth Imam, who willed money to hire mourners to lament him publicly for ten years in Mina, during the Hajj season, following his death by poisoning. An Imam who placed no value on worldly opinion had no need to be wept for. What he needed was for his death, and the oppression behind it, to remain impossible to bury in silence. If eleven lifetimes are really one, what changes about how each Imam's choices should be read? What the evening covers The 250-year-old person. Why the series treats the first eleven Imams as a single continuous figure rather than a list of names. Ten years of mourning in Mina. The political reasoning behind Imam al-Baqir's final request, and what it was designed to make impossible to ignore. What a real biography needs. Why birth dates and family trees are judged insufficient. The mountaineer. An early image for how apparently contradictory choices across 250 years belong to one unbroken journey toward the same summit. ## Scripture > أَيَسُـرُّكَ أنَ تَـكُوْنَ مِنْ حِزْبِ اللّهِ الغالِبينَ: إتَّقِ اللّهَ سُبْحانَهُ، وأحْسِنْ في كُلِّ أُمُورِكَ، فَإنَّ اللّهَ مَعَ الَّذينَ اتَّقَوْا والَّذينَ هُمْ مُحْسِنُونَ. > > Would you like to be among the victorious party of Allah? [Then] fear Allah, the Glorified, and be righteous in all your affairs, for surely Allah is with those who guard [against evil] and those who go good [to others]. — *Ghurur al-Hikam, The Party of Allah, Aphorism 1* ## Programme - [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/zIsEcvwQNTA) - [Sermon: Introduction to Imamah, Part 1](https://youtu.be/zIsEcvwQNTA) - [Nohe: The Generosity of Ahl al-Bayt](https://youtu.be/j5g45avErRM?si=db0XgCZFuOPjbJeH) - [Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin](https://youtu.be/uSJNHMq3oYs?si=q7Sshrb6uRwXksSe) ## Other sessions in this event - [Session 69 — The Architecture of Guidance, Part 9: The House Beside the Grave - Part 1 - Shaykh al-Ta'ifa](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-architecture-of-guidance-part-9-the-house-beside-the-grave-part-1-shaykh-al-) — 12 August 2026 - [Session 26 — Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba: A Life of Strategic Sacrifice](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-hasan-al-mujtaba-a-life-of-strategic-sacrifice) — 20 May 2026 - [Session 3 — Keeping God's Limits](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/keeping-gods-limits) — 10 December 2025 - [Session 41 — Imam al-Hadi, Part 1: The Charter of Wilayah and The Light in the Garrison](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-hadi-part-1-the-charter-of-wilayah-and-the-light-in-the-garrison) — 29 October 2025 - [Session 40 — Imam al-Jawad, Part 2: Generous Protection and The Fortress of Faith](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-jawad-part-2-generous-protection-and-the-fortress-of-faith) — 22 October 2025 - [Session 39 — Imam al-Jawad, Part 1: Youthful Authority and Eternal Clarity](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-jawad-part-1-youthful-authority-and-eternal-clarity) — 15 October 2025 - [Session 38 — Sayyedah Fatimah al-Ma'soumeh, Part 2: The Theology of Her Ziyarah](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/sayyedah-fatimah-al-masoumeh-part-2-the-theology-of-her-ziyarah) — 8 October 2025 - [Session 37 — Sayyedah Fatimah al-Ma'soumeh, Part 1: The Journey That Founded a City](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/sayyedah-fatimah-al-masoumeh-part-1-the-journey-that-founded-a-city) — 1 October 2025 - [Session 36 — Imam al-Rida, Part 4: Imamate Beyond Thrones](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-rida-part-4-imamate-beyond-thrones) — 24 September 2025 - [Session 35 — Imam al-Rida, Part 3: A Victory in Refusal](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-rida-part-3-a-victory-in-refusal) — 17 September 2025 - [Session 34 — Imam al-Rida, Part 2: From Containment to Amplification](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-rida-part-2-from-containment-to-amplification) — 10 September 2025 - [Session 33 — Imam al-Rida, Part 1: From Chains to Chessboard](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-al-rida-part-1-from-chains-to-chessboard) — 3 September 2025 --- _Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/introduction-to-imamah-part-1_